a. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a spool for holding wires, cables or optical fibers, and more specifically to a spool which can be separated at will into two parts.
b. Description of the Prior Art
Filamentary materials such as wires, cables, optical fibers, are kept for ease of handling on a spool consisting of a tubular drum having two opposed ends and two flanges affixed to said barrel at the respective ends and extending radially outwardly therefrom. One end of the elongated material is secured on the drum and the elongated material is then wound thereon. Once the spool has been transported to the cabling site, the material is paid off from the spool until a preselected length has been reached.
A problem with existing spools relates to the manner in which remainders are removed. The elongated material is provided in various lengths which normally exceed the amount of material actually required. For example, while a spool may hold 110 km of opitical cable, of which only a 100 km of optical fiber may be actually required. After a desired amount of material, for example about 100 km, is removed from the spool the remainder (i.e. about 10 km) is usually too short for most applications and must be discarded. However, this remainder must still be removed from the spool if the spool is to be reused. In prior art spools, the remainders could be removed by paying it off the spool, a very time consuming operation. Moreover, this was also unsatisfactory because, it may require equipment which may be used more efficiently elsewhere, and results in a length of unwound material which is difficult to handle. More frequently the remainder was simply cut off, however it was almost impossible to cut each strand or coil without damaging the barrel, especially if a relatively thin material is involved, such as an optical fiber.